Techniques have been developed by telecom companies to advance fiber optic cable through a conduit. Typical of such techniques are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,856,760; 4,948,097; 4,990,033; 5,022,634; 5,199,689 and 5,205,542. More recently, techniques for pumping fiber optic cable through a conduit to a downhole location and then back to the surface through a u-shaped turn at the downhole location have been developed as illustrated in U.S. Pat. RE 37,283 and RE 38,052. These downhole designs addressed getting well temperature profiles through the fiber optic cable. The nature of the delivery technique did not lend itself to connection to downhole sensors or instruments or other equipment that was already downhole. Thus a need exists that is addressed by the present invention of how to connect downhole devices to the surface when they are already in the hole.
One style of wet connectors for electrical applications involves a male component with an exterior contact band and a female counterpart component with a band on an interior surface. The portion of the string left in the well has a first hub generally with the female component looking up. The string run in from the surface has a second hub with the male component extending down longitudinally. The hub being run in is rotationally oriented as it advances toward the female hub so that the banded male and female components line up before being pushed together until the electrical contacts on each are opposite each other to complete the circuit. Some examples are U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,439,932 and 4,510,797. Wet connectors that complete tubing circuits in a similar manner are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,755,253; 6,390,193 and 6,186,229. Some connectors combine connection of electrical lines and hydraulic lines as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,648. Wet connectors for wireline that involve an indexing feature without a main bore in the connection are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,683.
Some connectors involve a polished bore receptacle and a string that is inserted into it. The receptacle has a button extending radially into the bore and the string has on its exterior a circumferential ring that is an open scroll with bent up edges. When the string is fully inserted into the polished bore receptacle the central conduit is joined and the bent tabs are said to find the button to make electrical contact in the polished bore with no need for rotational alignment. This design is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,925.
Thus, a need exists that is addressed by the present invention of how to connect downhole devices to the surface with a cable when they are already in the hole. The present invention addresses this need by allowing the sensors, instruments or power driven equipment to be installed in the desired location in the well and allowing them to be connected to cable for power or/and signal transmission up to a downhole connection, known in the art as a wet connect. A string can be run from the surface with the other half of the wet connection and mated up downhole. As a result, the main bore and the auxiliary bore become connected downhole. The lower portion of the auxiliary bore has the cable in it already connected to downhole sensors or devices that are already in position. After the wet connect is made up, the invention allows the cable for power, signal, or any other purpose to be delivered down the auxiliary conduit that is now connected from the downhole devices to the surface, until a connection to the lower portion of that cable is made downhole. A feature can also be provided to retain the connection together and to give a surface signal that the connection has been made. These and other features of the present invention will be more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the description of the preferred embodiment below and the associated drawings with the understanding that the full scope of the invention is to be found in the claims.